Building Hope for the Next Decade of Psychosocial Oncology: Optimizing the Integration of Supportive Care into Oncology Care

A special issue of Current Oncology (ISSN 1718-7729). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychosocial Oncology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 1043

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Adjunct Professor, Internal Medicine—Medical Oncology, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
2. Adjunct Professor, Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Interests: psychosocial; behavioural research; cancer; physicians; patients

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Guest Editor
1. Anew Research Collaborative: Reshaping Young Adult Cancer Care, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada
2. Department of Cancer Control Research, BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC, Canada
3. Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
Interests: psychosocial oncology; adolescent and young adult; health services research; supportive cancer care

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Guest Editor
1. Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship Program, Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Princess Margaret Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
2. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Interests: psychosocial oncology; digital health; cancer survivorship; health equity

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Guest Editor
1. Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
2. St. Mary’s Ressearch Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: psychosocial oncology; digital health; caregivers; patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs); patient-reported experience measures (PREMs); self-management; implementation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
2. Department of Psychiatry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
3. Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Interests: psychosocial oncology; psychoneuroimmunology; screening for distress; medical assistance in dying; depression

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
2. Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Science & Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Interests: psychosocial oncology; decision making; cancer prevention; health equity; health policy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Psychosocial oncology is a discipline concerned with the social, psychological, emotional, spiritual, quality-of-life, and practical aspects of cancer. This includes cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, end-of-life care, bereavement, and survivorship. The focus of this discipline is on providing a whole-person care approach while also considering caregivers, communities, providers, services, and system-level factors.

The Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO), established in 1987, aims to foster psychosocial care that optimizes health and healing for every Canadian affected by cancer. CAPO’s research advisory committee oversees the research activities and knowledge translation endeavors of CAPO members to optimize evidence-based psychosocial care, meet the research needs of our members, and support CAPO’s annual conference.

The 2024 conference, taking place in Calgary, Alberta, marks the 39th year that CAPO has brought together a national body of health care professionals, patient advocates/partners, and community stakeholders with the shared goal of supporting patients, families, and loved ones affected by cancer. This year, the CAPO conference theme is “Building hope: Integrating sustainable, innovative, and accessible care in psychosocial oncology”. In cancer care, hope can support individuals in buffering stress, overcoming adversity and burnout, coping with unique challenges, and optimizing health, healing, and growth.

As CAPO heads towards its next decade of advancing psychosocial oncology in Canada, this Current Oncology Special Issue, “Building Hope for the Next Decade of Psychosocial Oncology- Optimizing Integration of Supportive Care into Oncology Care”, welcomes contributions in clinical, education, health systems, and policy research, including diverse perspectives related to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, that will lead psychosocial oncology beyond today’s reality, pointing to a future of optimized integration in oncology care.

Dr. Fredrick D. Ashbury
Dr. Jonathan Avery
Dr. Jackie Bender
Dr. Sylvie Lambert
Dr. Madeline Li
Dr. Gilla K. Shapiro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Current Oncology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • psychosocial oncology
  • hope
  • cancer
  • interdisciplinary research
  • Canada
  • CAPO

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 703 KiB  
Article
Two-Step Screening for Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Cancer: A Retrospective Validation Study Using Real-World Data
by Bryan Gascon, Joel Elman, Alyssa Macedo, Yvonne Leung, Gary Rodin and Madeline Li
Curr. Oncol. 2024, 31(11), 6488-6501; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol31110481 - 23 Oct 2024
Viewed by 709
Abstract
Background: Although screening for distress is recommended by many cancer care guidelines, the uptake of such screening in cancer centers remains limited. Improving the acceptability of screening programs in cancer centers requires a reduction in clinical burden and an improved detection of distress. [...] Read more.
Background: Although screening for distress is recommended by many cancer care guidelines, the uptake of such screening in cancer centers remains limited. Improving the acceptability of screening programs in cancer centers requires a reduction in clinical burden and an improved detection of distress. The purpose of this study was to validate the performance of the two-step screening algorithm used in the Distress Assessment and Response Tool (DART) for identifying cases of anxiety and depression. Methods: This retrospective validation study consisted of patients at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM) who completed the DART, which includes the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System depression (ESAS-D) and anxiety (ESAS-A) items, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). We evaluated the performance of a two-step screening approach, which modeled the ESAS-D, followed by the PHQ-9 and ESAS-A, then the GAD-7 for predicting a diagnosis of depression and anxiety disorders, respectively. A clinical psychiatric assessment was used as the gold standard reference. Results: A total of 172 patients with cancer were included in this study. A total of 59/172 (34%) and 39/172 (23%) were diagnosed with a depression or anxiety disorder, respectively. The sequential administration of the PHQ-9 ≥15 following the ESAS-D (>2) significantly increased the post-test probability of depression from 37% to 60% and improved the performance of predicting depression compared to both the ESAS-D or the PHQ-9 as standalone tests. The sequential administration of the GAD-7 after the ESAS-A did not improve the predictability of an anxiety diagnosis beyond the performance of the ESAS-A or the GAD-7 as standalone tests. Conclusions: The present study is among the first to demonstrate that a two-step screening algorithm for depression may improve depression screening in cancer using real-world data. Further research on optimal screening approaches for anxiety in cancer is warranted. Full article
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